NASA Perpetual Ocean

post from Where's the Outrage? on 19 April 2012 11:53:03 PM. © Where's the Outrage?

This is a really cool animation of the earth’s ocean currents.[...]

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Im Certain Ill Blog Again About Local Affairs In
Houston And Texas Soon Enough

post from Texas Liberal on 19 April 2012 11:42:28 PM. © Texas Liberal

I could blog about local affairs here in Houston and in Texas on the blog today. I imagine I will offer such blogging soon enough. It is just that our leaders—and many of our fellow everyday citizens as well—are thieves who steal our time and our best energies with an endless load of idiocy, self-centeredness, [...]

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Thursday News Roundup

post from Where's the Outrage? on 19 April 2012 11:34:15 PM. © Where's the Outrage?

From Steve: * The Senate’s task of the day: trying to save the U.S. Postal Service. * The[...]

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 19 April 2012 11:30:23 PM. © Crooks and Liars

enlarge Credit: Official White House Photo/Pete SouzaPresident Barack Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Mich., April 18, 2012.

Open Thread Below...

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Open thread for night owls: The long campaign

post from Daily Kos on 19 April 2012 11:30:04 PM. © Daily Kos

This is going to be a long campaign season. Really, really, really long.

So far, at least, this campaign season is going to go down as being relentlessly, unremittingly negative. There's no bigger vision involved in any of them. The economy is being used as a handy bludgeon, but I don't think anyone honestly thinks anyone in Congress is going to do a damn thing about it, and so "bludgeon" is the best that can be hoped for. There are no constructive proposals, in the literal sense; all of the "big ideas" in government revolve around how much can be trimmed, and lopped off, and destroyed. The closest we get to a positive vision of our American future is when someone proposes we amputate a little less of it than the other guy.

Think about it; what are the big visions being proposed this election season? What are the plans for the nation? Behind the nationalism and flag pins, what, precisely, are candidates proposing that would make America one damn bit better? There is social rhetoric galore, but the only concrete, "big" vision is tax cuts. Very specific tax cuts, targeted at very specific people?the same people that have reaped a whirlwind of tax cuts for the last thirty years. There is a "big" vision to reduce the deficit?but it isn't met with any actual plan to reduce the deficit, because the "tax cut" vision is much, much more important. There is muttering about how religion should play a larger role in American life, and how government must defer to it to a much greater extent, and while I imagine that is seen as a bright future for a certain, narrow set of people, those of us who suspect our religion will not be the be-all, end-all religion chosen for this status regard that rhetoric as a horror show.

Conspiracy theories abound, filling the vacuum where more reasonable thoughts might once have stayed. Birtherism is the most prominent example, since it is a cheap and easy way to appeal to racists without coming out and copping to being one yourself: From Donald Trump to a two-bit Arizona Sheriff, it is the go-to move when you want to mark yourself as conservative leadership material. That's a view that smacks entirely too much of the past, and the nastier parts of the past at that.

Part of the problem is the Republican rejection of the very concept of government. It cannot be a force for good, in their new philosophy, and so the only allowable government actions are to destroy a small part of it. No matter how uncontroversial the program is (S-CHIP, anyone?), it is now railed against as abomination. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, enormously successful social insurance programs, are now all evidence of socialism. Environmental regulations? Screw the entire concept, and call it a secret United Nations conspiracy for good measure. It is a radical and reactionary vision, but more than that, it is relentlessly mean-spirited, and shallow-minded, and it is relentlessly focused on dismantling and destruction. Even if you were to accept the premise that all of this dismantling would somehow lead to a lovely economic renaissance that it has never, ever once led to, that best case scenario still sounds rather grim?a world led by the largest of large corporations, and scraps to everyone else.

I don't know. Republicans used to be quite good at nationalist rhetoric, and stoking notions of American exceptionalism, but even those panders seem to have become far more plasticized and stagnant of late. Yes, we still hear that America is the greatest country in the world, but it's been a long while since any candidate has stated a concrete something that we are best at. Instead we hear that we can't compete with other nations because our standards are too high, and need to be lowered. Our health care? Cut it. Wages? Cut them. Worker rights? Axe them. Environmental rights for your town? Screw it: China doesn't worry about protecting its environment, and look?they're beating us!

Back when Newt Gingrich was the current flavor of the month, the Not-Mitt of that one small moment, he proposed America build a base on the moon. He was roundly laughed at. He was laughed at by Republicans, because they knew he didn't really mean it, and because any Republican congress would disembowel any proposal like that with a gusto usually seen only among serial killers. He was laughed at by Democrats, because we knew he didn't mean it, too, and because it was so ridiculous coming from a modern Republican as to make us wonder whether he stored himself in a sealed box since he had last been in elected office. It was, admittedly, a momentary vision of America as a nation doing something that was grand, and unique, and that only America could do. But it barely lasted a week, and was never heard of again.

There's nothing like that these days. Or even half of it, or a tenth of it. Or even a damn thing. There is no proposal for how America should boldly do this, or America should take the lead on that. There are a hundred different futures waiting to be explored, and our great national vision is to do whichever one is the least ambitious, and takes the least effort, and dismantles the most government. Our grand national vision is not to build rockets, or build dams, or bring electricity to a far-flung nation, or build a transportation network that is the envy of the world; our national vision is to give some tax cuts to wealthy people, because anything else would be socialism, and call it done.

What a rotten national vision. What a long, long campaign season this is going to be.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005:

The Republicans used committees and a host of since-discarded rules (like one requiring both home state senators to sign off on any judicial nominees) to hold up a large slate of Clinton judicial nominees. It was their preferred method of obstruction, which they gleefully wielded. Jesse Helms alone was a one-man obstruction machine.
And yes, they even used the now-maligned filibuster to try and stop Richard Paez from the 9th Circuit. Sen. Smith, Republican of NH, even said on the floor of the Senate:
But don't pontificate on the floor of the Senate and tell me that somehow I am violating the Constitution of the United States of America by blocking a judge or filibustering a judge that I don't think deserves to be on the circuit court because I am going to continue to do it at every opportunity I believe a judge should not be on that court. That is my responsibility. That is my advise and consent role, and I intend to exercise it. I don't appreciate being told that somehow I am violating the Constitution of the United States. I swore to uphold that Constitution, and I am doing it now by standing up and saying what I am saying." (March 7, 2000)

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? @GingrichIdeas via web

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.

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-owls-The-long-campaign

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Late Night FDL: Stars and Bars

post from Firedoglake on 19 April 2012 11:00:35 PM. © Firedoglake

Having grown up in the 1960's and 1970's, I always assumed that when the South lost the Civil War, that unfortunate matter was pretty much settled. After all, slavery had ended, and while de facto segregation and and racist disenfranchisement were[...]

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This is not how we "Restore Our Future".

post from field negro on 19 April 2012 11:00:26 PM. © field negro

What is that quote about being negative again? Oh yeah,"Being positive in a negative situation is not naive. It's called leadership".

I bet that some of Flipper's friends wish he would memorize that quote. Take, for instance, Mitch Daniels:

"Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Wednesday ? then criticized him a day later in an interview with The Indianapolis Star.

Mr. Daniels, a fiscal conservative who many Republicans had hoped would seek the presidency himself, seemed to chide Mr. Romney for not offering a more positive message to voters. (Mr. Romney has spent a lot of time on the campaign trail attacking President Obama, and his ?super PAC,? Restore Our Future, has used its considerable resources to demolish primary rival after primary rival with negative ads.)

?You have to campaign to govern, not just to win,? Mr. Daniels told Matthew Tully of The Indianapolis Star. ?Spend the precious time and dollars explaining what?s at stake and a constructive program to make life better. And as I say, look at everything through the lens of folks who have yet to achieve.?
According to Mr. Tully, ?after a pause, Daniels added with disappointment, ?Romney doesn?t talk that way.? ?

Mr. Daniels also had some advice for Mr. Romney: ?Go ahead and have the confidence in the voters to explain the fix we?re in and then tell them with some specificity what we can do to get out of it in a way that?s good for everybody,? he said. ?Explain those things from the standpoint of the young and poor ? those who haven?t achieved the dream yet.? [Source]

Sorry Mitch, he can't go positive now. Not when he is being openly supported by a high profile,child molesting, draft dodging, dead beat dad celebrity, who has called for the assassination of the president of these divided states of America. (Glad the Secret Service is investigating Uncle Teddy. But I suspect that he is more of a danger to himself than anyone else. Still, when a man threatens to chop off the president's head to a room full of NRA wingnuts, it's time to push the Colombian hookers out of bed and find Ted's trailer park. ) A man who he has yet to condemn for his dangerous and fire in a crowded theater rant against our government. I think we can all agree that Flipper missed the positive train at the last station.

Anyway, [right] wingnuts are comparing Uncle Teddy to Rev. Jeremiah. Remember? "Goddamn America"! Nice try. I don't think that sane people believe that freedom of speech to speak out against the government and its policies is the same as actually threatening a government official's life. But hey, that's just me. I don't live in the parallel wingnut universe where you only see what you want to believe.

Pic courtesy of The Reid Report.

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With The Band

Title: OpheliaArtist: The Band

It's hard to put into words the effect that Levon Helm and The Band had on me as both a musician and a human in general. Levon always reminded me of the kind of person who's mere presence made everything feel alright. Through acrimonious band splitups, to the death of friends and bandmates, to a long battle with cancer, he always had a smile and was happy just to be sharing his inimitable musical gift with others. He was truly one of a kind. RIP.

PS. Our sister site Newstalgia, which also posts a lot of great old music, really needs your help. Five bucks (or more, of course, but yeah, even five bucks) makes a difference. If you spend more than that on music in a month, please consider supporting oldies but goodies at Newstalgia. Thanks.

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Thursday Stuff

You are scum for this, Mikey the Beloved. Absolutely unmitigated, unrepentant scum (though the crowd behavior is about what you would expect from his lizard-brained, nematode followers). And I can?t wait to see the verbal gymnastics employed by the Bucks County Courier Times in Mikey?s defense to attack those who point that out.

Want to do something about it? Click here (maybe it will begin to tilt some of the fundraising numbers a bit in Kathy Boockvar?s direction; let?s hope so anyway)?

?and RIP Levon Helm, performing here a little while back with a few friends.

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Well be back Occupy New Haven After Eviction

Phoenix Rising!I arrived at the camp at 7am to find Elm St blocked off to traffic and already a police presence. People were packing the remainder of their belongings as the Main Street media took up positions. The magic time was set at 8am for the[...]

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